Sports

Four Strathcona County high school basketball teams were able to survive the arduous zone playdowns and earn a berth in provincials this weekend.

Leading the pack and the most highly-touted Park team heading into provincials are the Strathcona Christian Academy Eagles senior boys team who will enter the 2A level Alberta championship tournament ranked No. 1.

The SCA boys had a strong run in zone play, defeating John Paul II 95-57 and then Millwoods Christian 81-41 last week to punch their ticket through to the 2A provincials at Immanuel Christian in Lethbridge, running from March 14 to 16.

“Zones went quite well for us,” said SCA boys basketball head coach Vince Reynolds.

“I was really impressed with our guys. It would have been easy to kind of overlook these teams after beating both of them quite significantly earlier in the year. To be able to bear down and focus the way we did was very good. All 14 of our guys played, so it was great for some of the guys to get a bit more experience as we prepare for provincials.”

Zipping through zones just added to what has been a dream season to date for the Eagles, who went undefeated in regular season play and became the first team from the school to win a Metro League City Conference championship. As a matter of fact, they were the first 2A level school period to take the banner.

“Winning the City championship was such a huge confidence booster for our guys,” Reynolds said. “We played a very good team and it was good to have the experience of playing in a really intense game with basically a hostile crowd as the game was in Edmonton. Our fans were really outnumbered. Our core group of guys that play the significant minutes are playing very well right now. We definitely feel we are peaking at the right time.”

Reynolds said that he has been blessed with a very strong roster this season and it has shown in the results.

“We have a great group of guys,” he said. “We returned 10 guys from last year’s team, so we have a lot of experience. We went to provincials last year and finished fourth and our guys have been in some big games. We are definitely led by our Grade 12s.

“We have great guard and perimeter play. Jordyn Halbersma and Jordan Weizenbach have done a really good job running our offence and making sure we do things correctly and taking advantage of matchups. Chris Foster, Nathan Schakel and Caleb Wilkins are our big three perimeter players. They just do so many things on both defence and offence. We are a tough team to match up with because of guys like that who do so many things well.

“The other guys who play significant minutes for us are Matt Snaterse and Michael Murphy. They are phenomenal posts. If we don’t have those guys we would have trouble playing against the bigger schools.”

The first-year head coach said he could easily keep going with the praise-a-thon.

“I wish I could put a spotlight on all of our guys,” he said. “Our depth has been our strength all year long, we really have 11 or 12 guys that could play major minutes for us. Sometimes the hardest decisions for me as a coach is who is going to play because we have so many skilled and hard working players on our team.”

Reynolds said he likes his team’s chances heading into the 2A championship tournament.

“I think we have a really good shot,” he said. “Going in as the number one seed is encouraging. The host school is ranked third and they are going to have all of the home fans, so they could be tough. But the reason we feel so confident as a team is that we have played in tough games against home crowds and done really well with that. We are excited for the opportunity to compete for the title.”

Eagles chicks also in

Reynolds was also pleased to see the SCA senior girls team earn a berth in their side of the 2A provincials as well.

After narrowly losing out 63-52 to Austin O’Brien in their City Conference championship game, the Eagles girls bounced back with a 77-40 win over Christ the King and a 84-33 victory over J.H. Picard in zones to enter provincials as the sixth-ranked team.

“They have some great players who have worked very hard,” Reynolds said. “They have had some tough luck with injuries. They are a bit better than how they have been ranked. They peaked last year at provincials and hopefully they can do the same thing this year.”

The girls 2A provincials take place in LaCrete.

Two other county teams were also able to advance through to provincials.

The Archbishop Jordan Scots senior girls, who lost in the Metro League’s top Premier Conference championship game to St. Albert, were able to finish second in the zone tournament and will be in the 4A provincials in Calgary this weekend.

The Ardrossan Bisons senior girls will be off to the 3A provincials in Strathmore after a narrow 54-50 win over Louis St. Laurent in the zones wildcard game on Friday.